Even though the end of the Vietnam War was nearly four decades ago, when many people think of the war, one of the first images that comes to mind is that of the Bell UH-1 Iroquois helicopter, more commonly known as the “Huey”. Its widespread use throughout the war by every branch of the U.S. military solidified it as a symbol of military service in Vietnam and as a result, many tributes for Vietnam Veterans feature the Huey… including the colorful half sleeve tattoo we feature today.

Though the helicopter was introduced into military service during World War II in mid-1943, the emerging technology had only advanced to the point of light, limited range helicopters and their use was rare and extremely limited.  When the Korean War began in 1950, helicopters were more common in military use in support roles like search and rescue and medical evacuation (as seen in the popular television show “M*A*S*H”) but were not found in combat roles. This was due to a restriction created in 1947 when the U.S. Air Force became a separate branch of the Armed Forces, prohibiting the U.S. Army from operating large aircraft and helicopters in combat. On November 4, 1952 the U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force signed an agreement that lifted the restriction of combat use of helicopters by the Army.  As a result the U.S. Army created and deployed the 6th Transportation Company to Korea and their use of the Sikorsky H-19 Chickasaw became the first true use of large helicopters operated by the Army as combat troop transport, but their arrival was too late in the war to have an impact.

It wasn’t until the U.S. entry into the Vietnam War in the early 1960′s when the helicopter became heavily used as a troop transport in a combat role.   The dense jungle landscape of the region and guerrilla fighting techniques of the North Vietnamese forces redefined combat strategy for American forces.  Unlike the mass deployment of large ground-based infantry and mechanized divisions to overwhelm and hold territory as used in World War II, the challenging combat conditions in Vietnam required smaller, more mobile fighting forces.  With the lack of cleared land and airfields, the helicopter became the vehicle for large-scale troop insertion and extraction as well as medical evacuation (nicknamed “Dustoff”), search and rescue, as well as its first use as an offensive attack aircraft (with the introduction of the Bell AH-1 Cobra).  Initially the piston radial-engine powered Sikorsky H-19 and its derivative, the H-34 Choctaw, were the primary large helicopters used in Vietnam, but were rapidly replaced with the new turbine-powered Bell Model 204, designated the UH-1 Iroquois, known commonly as the “Huey”.  The reliability, rugged construction, speed and capacity of the UH-1 allowed it to operate in a wide range of missions including air assault, cargo transport, medical evacuation, search and rescue, electronic warfare, general support, and even ground attack.  The base Model 204 Huey was upgraded through the war as the UH-1A, -1B and -1C versions and received a variety of field modifications and mission-specific equipment additions as well.   In 1963, a “stretched” Huey, the Bell Model 205, was introduced as the UH-1D and continued through the model -1H.  In all, over 7,013 Bell UH-1 Huey models served in Vietnam, transporting hundreds of thousands of troops during the 19 year deployment of U.S. forces.

Our featured half-sleeve upper arm tattoo illustrates a scene that perfectly illustrates the two most common uses of the UH-1 Huey: large-scale troop insertion into a combat landing zone (or “LZ”) on the outer arm (left side of image) and a “Dustoff” casualty extraction by UH-1 medivac on the inner arm (left side of image).  Also included in the tattooed scene is the ribbon of the Vietnam Service Medal over the crossed rifles of the Infantry Branch of the U.S. Army at the top and the insignia of the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV) under it.  The tattoo was created in honor of the father of the wearer, who is an Army veteran of the Vietnam War and served his tour of duty from 1966 through 1967.  The tattoo was completed in May 2010 and showed her father the completed tattoo created for him on Memorial Day — a most appropriate day for sure!  She said her father was greatly touched by the amazing tribute to his service.

The highly detailed and colorful half sleeve tattoo was created by tattoo artist Scotty Rich from Lady Luck Tattoo Gallery in Tempe, AZ.

Please click on the image below for a larger image.

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